


like light on water

by ADreamingSongbird



Category: Stormlight Archive - Brandon Sanderson
Genre: Gen, Reunion, Tien (Stormlight Archive) Lives, Warm and Fuzzy Feelings, it's just a kal and tien reunion and many hugs that's it that's the fic, oh im SO glad that's a real tag god bless
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-02
Updated: 2019-06-02
Packaged: 2020-04-06 17:25:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,039
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19067233
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ADreamingSongbird/pseuds/ADreamingSongbird
Summary: “—name is Tien,” Renarin finishes.Kaladin’s head snaps up, mental figurings of their supply of Stormlight and usage of the Gate suddenly all but completely forgotten. “…Sorry, could you repeat that?”





	like light on water

**Author's Note:**

> a very late thank-you present for mirasorastone! thank you for your patience as well, and i hope you like the fic!! ;w;
> 
> i left my copy of oathbringer on the other end of the country, so there may be some canonical inaccuracies for which i apologize. this is mostly just about hugs not plot dfjkdjs

“—name is Tien,” Renarin finishes.

Kaladin’s head snaps up, mental figurings of their supply of Stormlight and usage of the Gate suddenly all but completely forgotten. “…Sorry, could you repeat that?”

Renarin blinks slowly. “There’s someone who wants to see you,” he says, a bit more subdued than a moment before. Kaladin mentally smacks himself for not listening the first time; Renarin still needs the confidence boost that comes from people actually listening to what he has to say, given that he’s been deprived of that most of his life. He makes a mental note to berate himself for forgetting that later instead of now, though, so that he doesn’t need to ask the poor boy to repeat himself _again_.

“Someone named Tien who wants to see me,” he repeats, ignoring the pang that accompanies the name. “Uh… storms, Renarin, I’m sorry; my mind was someplace else. What did you say about him?”

Renarin smiles slightly, apology accepted. “It’s alright,” he says in that quiet, calm way of his. “I said, Glys and I both think he’s a Surgebinder, though we’re not sure which Order. He was rather evasive about it when we asked. He … also said that you would know him, though.”

Kaladin frowns. “I don’t know any Tiens.” Is someone taking his brother’s name? It’s not like it’s an extremely common name, sure, but it’s not extremely uncommon, either… but he has only ever known one Tien, and that was _his_ Tien. Who is gone.

Renarin frowns. “So he lied? But that doesn’t make sense—he would know he’d get caught in it as soon as I came to get you.”

Kaladin hesitates. “Well… I _used_ to know a Tien,” he says after a long moment, voice guarded. It feels like he’s giving up a big secret, one he’s supposed to keep locked up in a box deep in his heart. But if he has to tell someone, he supposes Renarin isn’t a bad choice.

“Used to?” One delicately arched eyebrow rises on Renarin’s thin face. “Who knows. It could be the same one, then. You should go see him—I told him to wait outside.”

“No, it can’t be the same one,” Kaladin says, shaking his head, even as he heads for the door. He’s been in one of the surviving storage buildings, evaluating how much Stormlight they’ll need to bring a squad of construction workers and materials in Urithiru over, and for a second he almost lets himself retreat back into facts and figures. It’s much easier to think about Radiant business and the consequences of the battle than it is to deal with the ghosts of past.

But no—he can’t do that. They have a potential new Surgebinder, and regardless of his own feelings about the name _Tien_ , he has to deal with this boy. It’s what he’s here for. Ignoring him in favor of “Radiant business” would be hypocritical.

“Thanks for letting me know,” he adds as he pulls the door open, turning to look at Renarin.

“You’re welcome.” A slight smile curves Renarin’s thin lips. Kaladin returns it. Renarin smiles more than he used to, he thinks. Then again, the stress of hiding his Surgebinding from everyone isn’t eating at him anymore, which probably has a lot to do with it.

Then he turns, closing the door behind him, and stops dead at the sight of the young man staring back at him.

“No…”

The boy— _Tien,_ that’s his Tien—takes a deep breath, a smile growing on his face—it’s _that_ smile, it’s Tien’s smile, oh _Stormfather_ —

“Kaladin!” he cries, running forward, and Kaladin barely has time to brace himself before Tien has flung his arms around him, laughing. “Oh, wow, I _finally_ found you!” He doesn’t let go, still laughing, leaning heavily into Kaladin’s chest and pressing himself close. After a second his eyes open, while Kaladin is still processing what is going on here, and he frowns slightly, more out of curiosity than anything. “Your eyes are kind of blue,” he says, surprised. “No, not blue. Hazel? Hazel is a good word. But they aren’t as brown as they used to be. Is… oh! Did you—”

“You’re not dead,” Kaladin manages, his mind still frantically trying to process what’s going on. “You’re—you’re not dead?”

Tien’s eyes widen, smile fading into a little round _o_ of surprise. He blinks up at him once, twice, and then hugs him tightly again. “No,” he agrees, muffled by Kaladin’s shoulder. “I’m not. You’ve … been thinking that this entire time?”

Kaladin’s arms move of their own accord, folding into place around the boy. One hand rests between his shoulderblades, the other moves to stroke through those dark, messy curls, and Tien lifts his head, smiling again. He still looks troubled though, the smile fading quickly as he studies Kaladin’s face some more.

“You thought I died?” he prods again, and to Kaladin’s surprise and dismay there’s _guilt_ in his voice and in his eyes.

“I—I did,” he answers truthfully, unable to lie to Tien as always, but then he fumbles for words. “I mean—Tien, I couldn’t, I couldn’t find you anywhere and I remembered seeing—what was I supposed to think? No, oh, storms, don’t look at me like that,” he pleads, unable to accept this absurd guilt Tien’s face has clear as day, guilt for having _died_. Or, well… nearly died.

Tien stops looking at him and instead nestles his head into the crook of Kaladin’s neck, seeming subdued. “I should have gone back to find you,” he mumbles. “I’m sorry, Kaladin. I… oh, I don’t know where to _start_. There’s so much to explain—“

“Kaladin!”

His gaze snaps up to the sky and the dancing silver wisps streaking down from the clouds. Syl zips over to him eagerly, curiosity written in every line of her little form now that she’s back from dancing among the clouds. She flits from high in front of the sun to hover around his head, bobbing this way and that to peer at Tien.

“Who’s that?” she asks, eyes wide. “I feel like I should know him! Can I say hi?”

Well. He supposes it was going to come up sooner or later. After all, Tien already noticed his eyes changed. And now he’s staring at Syl with a wide-eyed look that mirrors hers in an almost comical way.

“There’s a lot to explain on my end, too, Ti,” he says, giving his brother a squeeze. “For example. This is Syl. She’s an honorspren, she and I have a bond, and to sum most of it up, I kind of ended up being one of the new Knights Radiant.”

He’s expecting wide-eyed awe and then excited questions. He’s expecting Tien to be absolutely enthralled by Syl and vice versa. He’s expecting something that’ll at least help him get his feet back under him a little bit, if not all the way.

What he’s not expecting is for Tien to say, “Oh, that makes everything easier. Me too!”

What.

_What?_

“Oh,” Kaladin says faintly.

… He remembers now. Renarin _did_ say he and Glys both thought the newcomer looking for Kaladin Stormblessed was a Radiant.

Finally managing to let go of his little brother, he steps back and casts a quick glance up at Syl, but she seems far more interested in Tien than him. That’s fair enough, considering that Kaladin is, too. He keeps an arm wrapped around Tien’s shoulders, and Tien gives him a quick, warm smile as they start walking back to the storage building. It’s not the coziest place, but at least they can sit and talk in relative privacy in there.

“Yeah,” Tien says. “I don’t entirely know what it all means, but… oh,” and here he grows more serious, more subdued again, and his smile vanishes. “I was going to explain. During that battle, um… when I… you know… my spren, they helped me get away. They, um, used whatever Stormlight was in the spheres I had and got me off the battlefield and to that village through the forest, where they had a little hospital, and, yeah, that’s… that’s why you couldn’t find me. The doctor there told me I was asleep for a few weeks, and by the time I was okay to leave, the front lines had moved, and… yeah.”

“Oh,” Kaladin says again. He’s still trying to process most of this.

“So… that makes you what? Willshaper? Elsecaller? Lightweaver?” Syl flits around both of them, then alights on the thin air in front of Tien’s nose and peers at him some more.

“Lightweaver,” Tien answers, peering right back at her. Kaladin can see her reflected in his eyes, wide with curiosity and delight, and a surge of wistfulness and nostalgia slams into his chest with the force of a charging chasmfiend. It’s the same wide-eyed look Tien gave the rocks around Hearthstone, climbing over them and exclaiming in delight at the bugs crawling along by the grass or pebbles.

So much has changed, and yet…

“Lightweaver!” Syl dances around Tien’s head, a wisp of silver-blue delight. “Where’s your spren? I normally don’t like Cryptics, but yours doesn’t seem… as bad. Come out! I won’t bite!”

“They’re a little shy.” Tien beams, pulling a small, rounded river stone from his pocket. “It’s okay, Onde, you can come out! She’s a friend. And you know Kaladin! I told you about him!”

For a moment, there’s no response from the stone. But then it shifts, the smooth patterns on its surface rippling like the play of sunlight under water, and a little figure picks itself up from lying, curled up on its side, among the shadows.

Of course, Kaladin can’t help but think. Of course Tien ends up bonding a spren who looks as akin to a rockspren as Syl does a windspren.

“Hello…”

Tien’s spren—Onde—has a voice so quiet it’s almost imperceptible. Syl lets out an exclamation of delight and dives down from the sky to stand in Tien’s palm next to them, and Tien laughs with joy as she twirls around Onde in four quick steps. Onde looks a little overwhelmed, glancing this way and that, but lets Syl take their little hands and twirl them around, too.

“You’re cute!” she declares. “I like you!”

“Kind,” Onde whispers. They turn to Kaladin and look at him for several seconds; he holds their gaze and nods in greeting. They nod absently to themself, as if confirming something. “Strong.”

“Onde doesn’t use a lot of words all the time,” Tien explains, tucking the rock into his pocket again. Onde stays on his hand until he deposits them on his shoulder. “It works because I like to talk to people, so we balance out!”

“I see,” Kaladin says, lips twitching. This is so much to take in that he scarcely knows where to start, but the fact that Tien is here and _alive_ is still sinking in and he really can’t look away, can’t take his eyes off him. “Storms. Onde… so you’re the one who saved him?”

Onde nods once, the dappled sunlight-on-river-stone patterns rippling over their form.

“Thank you.” Kaladin lets out a soft breath. “Thank you very much.”

A slight smile flickers over Onde’s tiny face. “Welcome.”

“Right. Well… let’s go in. We can sit and talk.” Kaladin holds the door to the storage building open again, finally, instead of stupidly standing in front of it, and they duck through.

Renarin looks up from his conversation with Glys. Kaladin blinks, having completely forgotten he was here—his mind is more or less stuck on the fact that _Tien is alive_ and nothing else—and belatedly returns the greeting the other Radiant gave him.

“So you _do_ know each other,” Renarin says, and Kaladin wonders how he knows that before remembering he’s still holding Tien against his side.

“Oh. Right. Yeah. Uh, Tien, this is Renarin Kholin, our resident Truthwatcher and …Well, you’ve already met, I guess. Anyway, Renarin, this is my little brother.”

A little smile plays about Renarin’s lips again, and he trades glances with a space where Kaladin assumes Glys must be. “I had a feeling,” he says lightly, and Tien laughs.

 


End file.
